Our System

[sco22y 280]

The system we play has relied on Alfie being the main focal point (battering ram, workhorse) striker for too long. Now we are seeing that filling that position is no easy task when he is injured. Colak has had about 6 touches of the ball and hasn't made the keeper make a save in his two competitive matches (disallowed goal noted). You could argue the midfield's creativity has been woeful so far but there is no way, if Alfie had been playing, this would be the case. If we can't find a player suitable for the position, we may have to change the system. Perhaps go back to two up top and have a partnership. What'd you think? 

[Guest]

Sometimes I really wish we played a bit more like they. 

Fast movement of the ball, get it up the park and get loads of over/under loads and balls into the box quickly 

We want to play too much football. 

[The Beast 9,230]

If we play a system than requires a strong aggressive forward playing solo up front then our backup strikers should be the same type of player.

[Malkytfp1 18,614]

The problem is we play three fucking holding midfielders and expect one of them (Kamara) to all of a sudden be an attacking number ten. Lundstram Jack and Kamara in that midfield tonight has zero creativity. They are all sitting mids. Not one of them is the type of midfielder to make an overlapping run into the box or get on the edge of the box for shots etc. 

[Swagger 8,130]

1 minute ago, psb07158 said:

Sometimes I really wish we played a bit more like they. 

Fast movement of the ball, get it up the park and get loads of over/under loads and balls into the box quickly 

We want to play too much football. 

It’s not even playing football. It’s safe unimaginative pish. Nobody wants to shift it quickly. Jack,Kamara and Lundstrum get it receive it and recycle it. Too many minutes are spent moving the ball sideways. 
We are never moving forward. 

[sco22y 280]

6 minutes ago, The Beast said:

If we play a system than requires a strong aggressive forward playing solo up front then our backup strikers should be the same type of player.

Alfie type players ain't cheap. Nor is Alfie. 

[MarcusDa Beasley 1,039]

We’d nailed the 433 until Gerard’s head was turned and we went to shit. Everyone bought into it. Gio has come in and wanted to put his own stamp on the team which is fair enough but I don’t even think he knows what he’s trying to achieve now. 2 up top our midfield gets over-run. 5 at the back our midfield gets over-run. Get back to inverted wingers in a 433 and let Yilmaz and Tav get forward. 

McLaughlin

Tav Goldson Davies Yilmaz

Kamara Lundstram

Tillman

Fucknows Morelos Kent

[SeparateEntityMyArse 53,810]

You might be right. But see whilst we have occasions where every player or almost every player is well below par at the same time then formations don't really matter a fuck.

Get the attitude, tempo and players taking personal fucking responsibility sorted then we might find that formation isn't such a big issue.

Though tonight I'd agree it certainly was and should have been changed at half time.

[SeparateEntityMyArse 53,810]

3 minutes ago, Swagger said:

It’s not even playing football. It’s safe unimaginative pish. Nobody wants to shift it quickly. Jack,Kamara and Lundstrum get it receive it and recycle it. Too many minutes are spent moving the ball sideways. 
We are never moving forward. 

The good news is now he's bumped from CH we can expect Sands in there doing cautious recycling of the ball too.

[BlueSuedeSambas 53,896]

3 minutes ago, Swagger said:

It’s not even playing football. It’s safe unimaginative pish. Nobody wants to shift it quickly. Jack,Kamara and Lundstrum get it receive it and recycle it. Too many minutes are spent moving the ball sideways. 
We are never moving forward. 

That’s because most weeks we are playing against teams who set up with a low block. We move the ball side to side to try and drag the other team out of shape and create an opening that way.

[Laudrupsleftfoot 11,014]

Needs to be some variation in the speed - the slow technically sound keep the ball from left to right whilst sizing up and trying to shift the opponent is all well and good if that then leads to an explosion of passing through the lines to create a clear shot on goal - but invariably it doesn't.

[BlueKnight87 17,316]

14 minutes ago, The Beast said:

If we play a system than requires a strong aggressive forward playing solo up front then our backup strikers should be the same type of player.

Exactly. 

But we don't we instead sign players and expect them to do what morelos does. 

If we can't find players that offer what alfie does. Then we need our management to start looking at ways we can play to different strengths up top.

[sco22y 280]

7 minutes ago, Swagger said:

It’s not even playing football. It’s safe unimaginative pish. Nobody wants to shift it quickly. Jack,Kamara and Lundstrum get it receive it and recycle it. Too many minutes are spent moving the ball sideways. 
We are never moving forward. 

I agree with the 'safe' remark. Too often we care for having so many dms in our starting line up, albeit great at keeping possession, so we often forget the attacking brand of football we have historically been associated with. We badly need a gifted central midfielder (ala Pedro Mendes or Barry Ferguson esque) in there. 

[GaryMc 2,394]

Our system is great when it works but too often it's boring as fuck.

[Drunk and disorderly. 14,512]

I don't think it was down to the system.

Gio didn't rely on a solitary formation and he made sensible substitutions.

The players let is down imo. I don't know if it was down to arrogance, lack of fitness, new players coming in, key players missing  or laziness. Possibly a combination of above.

We have a chance to make up for our errors at Ibrox and the players need to go up a few gears and play to their potential. 

They owe us that much and will know it. 

 

 

[Drunk and disorderly. 14,512]

Double post.

[Malkytfp1 18,614]

1 minute ago, Drunk and disorderly. said:

I don't think it was down to the system.

Gio didn't rely on a solitary formation and he made sensible substitutions.

The players let is down imo. I don't know if it was down to arrogance, lack of fitness, new players coming in, key players missing  or laziness. Possibly a combination of above.

We have a chance to make up for our errors at Ibrox and the players need to go up a few gears and play to their potential. 

They owe us that much and will know it. 

 

 

Mon to fuck mate. Aye the players were bad but playing Barisic as an attacking wing back out there alone was baffling. Playing 3 holding mids with zero creativity was baffling. Allowing Kamara 94 minutes of ineffectiveness was baffling. The system was all wrong tonight and it needed changed from about 20.minutes in.

[Drunk and disorderly. 14,512]

20 minutes ago, Malkytfp1 said:

Mon to fuck mate. Aye the players were bad but playing Barisic as an attacking wing back out there alone was baffling. Playing 3 holding mids with zero creativity was baffling. Allowing Kamara 94 minutes of ineffectiveness was baffling. The system was all wrong tonight and it needed changed from about 20.minutes in.

Gio has played more baffling formations against top Euro teams both home and away and won.  We both know that.

We could have played an old fashioned 442 and still beat them if our players were on form FFS. 

Name me a single player who performed well tonight. Just one. Go on....

[Malkytfp1 18,614]

Just now, Drunk and disorderly. said:

Gio has played more baffling formations against top Euro teams and won.  We both know that.

We could have played a 442 and still beat them I'd our players were on form FFS. 

Name me a single player who performed well tonight. Just one...

Nobody played well tonight bar a decent few moments from Tillman. Our system was a big part of nobody playing well. Barisic isolated on the left fucked us attacking and defending. Defensive set up designed to keep possession and play for a 0-0 with the possibility of a counter attack meant when we were In possession we were passive. Playing Kamara as the link between midfield and forwards meant we had no creativity and nobody breaking the line to support from midfield.

[Drunk and disorderly. 14,512]

18 minutes ago, Malkytfp1 said:

Nobody played well tonight bar a decent few moments from Tillman. Our system was a big part of nobody playing well. Barisic isolated on the left fucked us attacking and defending. Defensive set up designed to keep possession and play for a 0-0 with the possibility of a counter attack meant when we were In possession we were passive. Playing Kamara as the link between midfield and forwards meant we had no creativity and nobody breaking the line to support from midfield.

So you agree that every player was below par? Not one of them looked as if they'd played in a Euro final last season. They should and will be embaressed. 

I can see your point mate but football is about collective responsibility. Everyone on here was happy with the team selection and formation. Were you?

We started well then regressed after 15 minutes.

Gio could have done better but by fuck every single player let us down. In a perfect world you'd have subbed every single one of rhem.

Lucky not to get beat 4 nil by a diddy team.

Not gonna dwell on it though we have an opportunity to turn it around at Ibrox mate. 

 

 

[Malkytfp1 18,614]

1 minute ago, Drunk and disorderly. said:

So you agree that every player was below par? Not one of them looked as if they'd played in a Euro final last season. They should and will be embaressed. 

I can see your point mate but football is about collective responsibility. Everyone on here was happy with the team selection and formation. Were you?

We started well then regressed after 15 minutes.

Gio could have done better but by fuck every single player let us down. Lucky not to get beat 4 nil by a diddy team.

Not gonna dwell on it though we have an opportunity to turn it around at Ibrox mate. 

 

 

Aye it was a collective but you were saying it wasn't the system. Listen this system is struggling to create chances. We seem persistent in getting the ball out wide and lumping it into the box which isn't working and is a throw back to when we were struggling under Gerrard. I wasn't thrilled when I seen that the system involved three holding midfielders with Kamara acting as the lynchpin between midfield and attack. It's never worked doing that and even against Livingston we had all the possession in the world but actually struggled to create chances. We should always play with two holding mids and a number ten imo, be it Tillman or Lowry for instance. You're right it was a collective failure but the system is a problem.

[rossco87 691]

It’s a lazy argument but at times our midfield looks like it has had very little money spent on it.

One of Jack or Lundstrum is fine (possibly two in bigger games) but we need more creativity in there to change the attacking play.

It started with Gerrard using Jack and Kamara as two sitting DMs to cover the fullbacks pushing on and has carried on.

We are far too reliant on all the creativity coming from wide and gives us a predictability which is pretty easy to defend against - low block, double up on Kent and allow and then defend crosses.

We need to mix it up with more runners into the box from centre of midfield giving option for through balls into the box or at least dragging people out of shape. It is noticeable how static we can become when we get to the final third and just try and work triangles without much movement.

Hoping that Tillman and Lawrence are being viewed for those kind of roles and that Gio just got it wrong tonight with the midfield he picked and pushing Tillman wide.

[Malkytfp1 18,614]

2 minutes ago, rossco87 said:

It’s a lazy argument but at times our midfield looks like it has had very little money spent on it.

One of Jack or Lundstrum is fine (possibly two in bigger games) but we need more creativity in there to change the attacking play.

It started with Gerrard using Jack and Kamara as two sitting DMs to cover the fullbacks pushing on and has carried on.

We are far too reliant on all the creativity coming from wide and gives us a predictability which is pretty easy to defend against - low block, double up on Kent and allow and then defend crosses.

We need to mix it up with more runners centrally from centre of midfield giving opportunities for through balls into the box.

Hoping that Tillman and Lawrence are being viewed for those kind of roles and that Gio just got it wrong tonight with the midfield he picked and pushing Tillman wide.

Spot on. Look across the city at the goals and assists they get from midfield. Were so redundant in that area. Not sure Lawrence and/or Tillman can play as a two but they should definitely be played in front of the midfield instead of the 3 holding players.

[kelvd1873 7,194]

1 hour ago, Swagger said:

It’s not even playing football. It’s safe unimaginative pish. Nobody wants to shift it quickly. Jack,Kamara and Lundstrum get it receive it and recycle it. Too many minutes are spent moving the ball sideways. 
We are never moving forward. 

Teams have worked it out and sit in against it. tbh it suits them and then it’s up to us to break them down. I’m still confident Gio will tweak our formation next week to help us attack better. 

[kelvd1873 7,194]

4 minutes ago, Malkytfp1 said:

Spot on. Look across the city at the goals and assists they get from midfield. Were so redundant in that area. Not sure Lawrence and/or Tillman can play as a two but they should definitely be played in front of the midfield instead of the 3 holding players.

Lawrence hasn’t done much for me yet and yeah I know it’s very early for him. But I agree he and Tillman should be in the middle creating if kent is fit for next week. No need for Lunny Jack and kamara in midfield at ibrox.